Nebraska head coach Frank Solich doesn't necessarily believe Kansas State needs a victory Saturday over his team to validate its turnaround.The Associated PressJust a win over Huskers missing in turnaround

By KEVIN HASKIN

The Capital-Journal

The winning streaks are all current bests among Big 12 football teams.

Overall victories: 17. Big 12 victories: 13. Victories at home: 14.

They belong to Kansas State, but do not include one achievement that has eluded the program since Bill Snyder began overseeing its miraculous turnaround 10 years ago.

Missing in his 75-37-1 record at K-State is a win over Nebraska.

Predictably, Snyder was asked Monday during the Big 12 coaches conference call whether the 2:30 p.m. matchup with the Huskers on Saturday in KSU Stadium will be the biggest game he has ever coached.

"I don't know if that's necessarily the case, but it is extremely important and vital to us," Snyder said. "It's quite understandable that it could be perceived that way.

"Not having beat Nebraska, at least at any time in our tenure here at Kansas State, makes it extremely important to us and we understand the circumstances that surround the game as well and I wouldn't make light of our desire to win the ballgame."

Although the nine losses Snyder has suffered against Nebraska is the most by any K-State coach in the 82-game series, there are others who have shared in his misery.

The three coaches who preceded Snyder in Manhattan never succeeded against Nebraska, either, after Vince Gibson took the Wildcats into Lincoln and handed the Huskers a 12-0 defeat in 1968.

For K-State to remain in the hunt for a national championship, however, it must keep the Huskers from extending their command of the series into a 30th season. A sellout crowd, as well as a regional ABC audience, will be watching.

No doubt, many of them believe K-State needs a victory to validate its turnaround. But Frank Solich, the first-year coach who will bring in a 7-2 Nebraska team, doesn't think so.

"If you look at what they've accomplished, they did make the turnaround and got around the corner," Solich said. "It's certainly in their minds, I'm sure, that in order to complete it all that's something (a win over NU) they would like and they'll work very hard to get it done. As I see them, and most people who follow college football see them, they've completed the turnaround and done a great job."

Improbable as it may have sounded when Snyder took over in 1989, Solich wouldn't have considered it impossible -- even though he served as an assistant coach in the last 19 wins over K-State and also played fullback for three NU teams that whipped the Cats in 1963, '64 and '65.

"I'm the kind of guy who thinks anything's possible, so I would not have discounted that," Solich said.

He did acknowledge this much: "I don't know about all the turnarounds in college football history, but this is certainly as good a turnaround as I know about and without question was something that was not easily done."

Solich won't concede anything to K-State, however.

"I know this, that our players have got confidence in themselves," he said. "We've stumbled a couple of times and struggled, but this squad has hung together and they've showed a great deal. They're capable of playing real good football and it's going to take all of that to have a chance of getting the job done on Saturday."